European teams change coach almost once a season

Published: April 17, 2014 9:45 AM

NYON, Switzerland (AP) -- The unstable job security of a football manager is highlighted in a report released by UEFA on Thursday that showed the average top-division European club changes its head coach almost once a year.

The clubs made an average of 2.7 coaching changes in the three seasons from 2011-13, the European governing body said in its licensing benchmarking report.

Coaches in top-flight Greek clubs lasted an average of four months in that period. Of Europe's top leagues, Spanish teams changed coaches every 11 months and English sides every two years.

"Everyone involved in football wants to win," UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino said in the foreword of the report, "but when we look at the last three years of club football and see almost 2,000 head coach changes and combined club losses of more than 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion), it is clear that the football family needs more stability, less short-term thinking and better financial sustainability."

June is the most common month for a coach to lose his job, followed by May and December.

Player wages at top-flight teams increased 59 percent from 2007-12 while club revenues grew by 42 percent in the same period.